"Ideally, the Senate would have not taken a two-week break, and it would be debating right now the bipartisan commission on deficit reduction, especially following Standard & Poor's saying that we are headed towards losing our AAA credit rating," Kirk said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

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Kirk said he was worried the Senate was not getting enough done.

"While the House of Representatives has cast over 200 votes and sent major legislation directly on point to expand the gasoline supply of the United States, lowering prices and cut government spending, the Senate is largely moribund," he said.

"As someone who worked in the private sector for a long time and then ran a local government before coming here, at times I'm so frustrated, I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall trying to encourage forward movement," Coons said. "But to be clear, when we're on recess, as my daughter Maggie says, my recess is quite different from her recess."